MATARAM - In order to meet farmers' fertilizer needs in the second planting season in 2023, PT Pupuk Indonesia (Persero) provides subsidized fertilizer stocks of 375,492 tons in line III warehouses for Eastern Indonesia. This subsidized fertilizer stock is under the authority of the regional sales unit or East PSO starting from East Java to Papua.

SVP PSO Timur Pupuk Indonesia, Agus Susanto said that subsidized fertilizer stocks for eastern Indonesia consisted of 217,671 tons of Urea, 157,821 tons of NPK including Cocoa NPK. This was conveyed to media colleagues at the Chat with Pupuk Indonesia (Ngo-PI) event in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), Friday (10/6/2023).

"The subsidized fertilizer stock, which amounted to 375,492 tons, was recorded as of June 9, 2023 and is spread across all Line III Warehouses in the eastern sales area of Pupuk Indonesia. Urea fertilizer stock is equivalent to 320 percent of the minimum stock set by the Government, while NPK is recorded to be equivalent to 351 percent of the minimum requirement. That way, Pupuk Indonesia will continue to maintain the availability of subsidized fertilizers in eastern Indonesia in order to welcome the second planting season in 2023," said Agus.

Specifically for the NTB region, Agus revealed that Pupuk Indonesia provided a stock of 45,044 tons of subsidized fertilizer, consisting of 34,480 tons of Urea fertilizer, 11,333 tons of NPK fertilizer, and 231 tons of cocoa NPK. According to Agus, the stock provided has met the conditions stipulated by the Minister of Trade Regulation (Permendag) Number 4 of 2023, in which this rule stipulates that producers must provide stock in Line III warehouses to be able to meet demand for the next 2 weeks.

"When viewed from the existing subsidized fertilizer stocks, the subsidized fertilizer stocks in the NTB region can meet the needs for the next 1 month, because the urea stock of 34,480 tons is equivalent to 579 percent, NPK is 11,333 tons, equivalent to 325 percent, and NPK cocoa 231 tonnes equals 663 percent," said Agus.

This subsidized fertilizer stock, said Agus, can only be obtained by farmers who meet the criteria and requirements of Minister of Agriculture Regulation (Permentan) Number 10 of 2022 concerning Procedures for Determining the Allocation and Highest Retail Price of Subsidized Fertilizers in the Agricultural sector. Based on this regulation, farmers must join a farmer group, be registered with the SIMLUHTAN (Agricultural Extension Management Information System), cultivate a maximum of two hectares of land, and use a Farmer's Card (for certain areas).

“Farmers who are entitled to an allocation of subsidized fertilizers can only redeem subsidized fertilizers at official kiosks that have been determined to serve local farmer groups. Apart from that, farmers who can also have to be registered in the e-Allocation which was previously known as the Group Needs Definitive Plan (RDKK),” added Agus.

Still based on Permentan Number 10 of 2022, Agus revealed that the Government had determined 9 (nine) commodities that were entitled to receive subsidized fertilizer allocations, namely rice, corn, soybeans, shallots, garlic, chilies, coffee, smallholder sugarcane and cocoa. In other words, farmers who cultivate other than these commodities are no longer entitled to subsidized fertilizer allocations.

On this occasion, Agus said that there was an allocation of NPK Cocoa fertilizer for NTB Province in 2023. The allocation of NPK fertilizer specifically for cocoa with the formula (NPK 14-12-16-4) amounted to 1,067 tons spread across six districts, namely North Lombok amounted to 658 tons, East Lombok 259 tons, West Lombok 79 tons, Central Lombok 34 tons, and Dompu 24 tons.

Meanwhile, from the distribution side, Agus revealed that Pupuk Indonesia had distributed subsidized fertilizer to eastern Indonesia of 1.38 million tons as of June 6 2023. This figure had reached 70.7 percent of the cumulative allocation until June of 1.96 million tons. Meanwhile, there were 822,805 tons of Urea type fertilizer distributed, 551,645 tons of NPK and 11,967 tons of cocoa NPK. Based on the Decree, the Government has set an allocation of subsidized fertilizer for the Eastern Indonesia region of 3,744,390 tons in 2023.

Particularly for the NTB region, 148,794 tons of subsidized fertilizer had been distributed as of June 7, 2023. The details were Urea fertilizer of 83,195 tons, NPK fertilizer of 65,514 tons, and NPK Cocoa of 85 tons.

Related to the issue of farmers finding it difficult to get subsidized fertilizers, Functional Associate Expert of Agricultural Infrastructure & Facilities for the Province of NTB, Iis Isnaeni revealed that the fertilizers that receive subsidies from the Government are Urea and NPK. Furthermore, only farmers who are entitled to subsidized fertilizer allocation work on nine commodities as stipulated in Minister of Agriculture Regulation Number 10 of 2022.

"In the past, in Permentan 41 there were 70 types of commodities and now there are 9 commodities. Then the mechanism also changed from the term RDKK to switch to e-Allocation, we are still continuing to socialize these changes and friends here can socialize too," said Iis.

The Head of the West Nusa Tenggara Provincial Trade Office, Baiq Nelly Yuniarti, expressed a similar sentiment. He said that the main problem was that these farmers did not meet the requirements set by the Government, in this case Minister of Agriculture 10 of 2022. He gave an example that there are still many farmers who find it difficult to get subsidized fertilizer because they have not joined the RDKK.

"The problem with farmers, on average for our farmers, the problem is that not all of our farmers are included in the RDKK, so often when we get into trouble it turns out that our farmers who demand subsidized fertilizer are in fact not included in the RDKK. So if we talk about distribution, talking about prices, it's clear, the warehouse and stock are clear. But the problem is farmers who are not included in RDKK," said Nelly.

On the same occasion, the Head of Public Relations of the West Nusa Tenggara Police, Arman Asmara Syarifuddin, revealed that Pupuk Indonesia could collaborate with the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Trade in the regions to utilize social media platforms as a means of dissemination and disclosure of information regarding subsidized fertilizer policies.

"If we look at and follow fertilizer activities, as stated that there are 7.8 million tons of subsidized fertilizer distributed to farmers. Distribution activities can take advantage of platforms and can be maximized so that people know where to distribute subsidized fertilizers," said Arman.

Agus further revealed that the Pupuk Indonesia Group has a fertilizer production capacity of 13.9 million tons, consisting of 8.8 million tons of Urea fertilizer, 3.8 million tons of NPK fertilizer, and the remaining 1.3 million tons of fertilizer. other. This production capacity is capable of producing subsidized fertilizer according to the Government's stipulation, which is around 7.8 million tonnes for 2023.

On the same occasion, Agus also appealed to all farmers to be aware of the circulation of artificial fertilizers ahead of the planting season. This is because these artificial fertilizer products are very identical in terms of packaging and product brands, especially subsidized fertilizers belonging to the Pupuk Indonesia Group. Fertilizer products belonging to the Pupuk Indonesia Group, both subsidized and non-subsidized, can only be obtained at official complete fertilizer kiosks (KPL) as partners. In fact, fertilizer products belonging to Pupuk Indonesia (Persero) have exclusive rights to subsidized fertilizer trademarks.

The characteristics of Pupuk Indonesia's original products are as follows; there is a call center number, SNI logo, distribution permit number. Pupuk Indonesia products are also registered with the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, and have quality and content according to the Indonesian National Standard (SNI). From the side of the sack, the farmers can also see directly the words 'Government Subsidized Fertilizer, Goods Under Control'. In addition, there are special characteristics in the form of fertilizer, especially subsidized fertilizers, namely in the form of prill and granules and having a distinctive color, such as pink or pink subsidized Urea fertilizer, and red-brown NPK-type subsidized fertilizer. In addition, farmers can also ensure the authenticity of subsidized fertilizer products by contacting Pupuk Indonesia's customer service at a toll-free contact at 0800 100 8001 or WA 0811 9918 001.